Canvas:
This work is created on traditional Myanmar fabric, whose repeating woven motifs establish both a visual cadence and a conceptual framework. The textile evokes cultural continuity, domestic labor, and collective identity, functioning not merely as a background but as an active field where personal and political histories intersect.
Technique:
Acrylic painting is combined with archival newspaper clippings and historical photographic imagery, collaged directly onto the fabric surface. The textile pattern remains visible beneath layers of paint and paper, allowing the surface to breathe and asserting the fabric’s presence alongside the figure. The collaged elements are integrated into the shadowed form rather than placed separately, merging image, body, and material.
Process:
The painting is developed through a careful layering of acrylic paint and paper fragments. Newspaper clippings are embedded into the secondary figure, creating a shadow-like presence formed from documented history. This gradual process allows text and imagery to surface and recede, mirroring how collective memory accumulates quietly over time.
Artwork Description:
Bearing the Weight Together reflects on shared burden and inherited memory. The central female figure stands composed, her posture calm yet inwardly weighted. Behind her, a shadow figure—constructed from newspaper and archival imagery—echoes her form, suggesting a collective presence carried alongside the self.
The interaction between the two figures implies solidarity rather than separation. History is not something held at a distance, but something that stands close, presses gently, and shapes posture and presence. The shadow does not overpower the figure; instead, it follows her, reinforcing the idea that personal strength is formed in relation to collective experience.
The patterned fabric backdrop reinforces repetition and continuity, echoing cycles of struggle and resilience. Through material, gesture, and layered imagery, the work asserts that weight is not borne alone—history, memory, and endurance are shared, carried together, and sustained through quiet resilience.
